Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) came under severe criticism in Senate on Thursday, as Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Shah hinted at taking over the control of the company if it failed to rectify its affairs.
While speaking on points of order, a number of senators pointed out that KESC management had failed to fulfil the agreed rules and regulations in the contract and asked the government to take over its administration by cancelling the contract of privatisation.
They pointed out that the management of the KESC has issued notices to a number of its employees to be terminated, against which they were staging hunger strike in front of Karachi Press Club. They were of the view that KESC had generating capacity of 3000 megawatts, but management was generating only 1200 megawatts just to save their expenses of furnace oil. They said that KESC purchased power at cheap rates from WAPDA and supplied to Karachi population at higher rates.
While responding to the concerns of the lawmakers, Khursheed Shah said that the government had asked the KESC management not to terminate any body but, he added that the company had violated its own agreement under which it was bound not to sack any employee.
The Minister said that he had written letters to Chief Minister and Governor Sindh urging them to take notice of the affairs of the KESC, adding that he would also write to Minister for Water and Power on this count. "We will force the management not to terminate any of its employees or otherwise, will take over control of the KESC", he warned.
Referring to the power outages in Karachi and the inability of the KESC to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply to the city as complained by many senators, Shah said that the KESC has the capacity to generate enough power, but it was deliberately not generating it to save its money. He stated that under the contract, the KESC had pledged to make Rs 3 billion investment. He said that under the contract the KESC was to replace the old system with the new besides, setting up its own power generation plants, adding that the company was relying on WAPDA for purchasing up to 900 MW electricity on subsided rates.
To the complain by chairman Senate Committee on Rules and Procedure and Privileges, Tahir Hussain Mashhadi said that the MD KESC was considering himself not accountable to the parliament, he observed that Parliament is supreme constitutional body even the Supreme Court, asking the chairman of the committee to issue summon for production of MD KESC through magistrate. Mashhadi has also warned the MD KESC for issuing summon to him. "We will drag him to appear before the committee," he said, adding that the MD has refused to appear before the committee for the second consecutive time and has conveyed that he was not answerable to the parliament.
Earlier, PPP's Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, while speaking on a point of order, said that a number of KESC employees have been issued show-cause notices from the management and they were on protest. He said that one of the protesters in the camp was brought in the hospital in a critical condition. He warned that the federal government and the KESC management would be responsible if anything happened to any of the employees. "An FIR would be lodged against the Federal government or KESC management if any thing happened to the employee", he further warned. He further said that the KESC has failed to run its affairs according to the contract and the federal government should take over its control. Senators including Haji Muhammad Adeel, Professor Khurshid Ahmad, Abdul Haseeb Khan, Zahid Khan, Mushahid Ullah Khan, Gulshan Saeed, Mir Hasil Bazenjo, Professor Muhammad Ibrahim, Safdar Abbasi, Khalid Soomro and Semeen Siddiqui were among those who speak on the matter.